


Eidetic

by ijemanja



Category: The 4400
Genre: F/F, Memory Alteration, Mindfuck, Psychological Torture, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-13
Updated: 2007-03-13
Packaged: 2018-02-06 13:45:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1860216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ijemanja/pseuds/ijemanja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is war. April has new powers, new friends, and a newfound moral ambiguity. She also has Nina.</p><p>Spoilers through the end of season 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Eidetic

**Author's Note:**

> Femslash07 fic, written for alixtii.

"Why are you here, April? This isn't your fight," Nina says. The chair is uncomfortable, but she tries not to shift around. The bonds are tight, her wrists are starting to hurt.

April shrugs. "Sure feels like it. You think it matters if I helped start it? We're all dead. Or you're all dead."

Nina can't argue with that. One way or the other.

"We know what your 'directive' is, you know," April adds.

The last orders out of D.C. before they shut down communications, before NTAC went dark and the walls began to shake. Nina barely got out; many didn't.

What did they expect?

"This is war," Nina says, and could almost smile at the words coming out of her mouth.

She's been accused of being humourless, in the past. Usually by the same people calling her a ball-breaker behind her back. Neither descriptive is accurate, in fact, if there weren't so many people dying out there, if she wasn't almost certainly going to die herself, she could almost laugh.

A bare room, two chairs and a light. Factor in the over-the-top dialogue and this is like a scene from an action thriller movie. A bad one.

She wonders if she'll get a last request.

"Whatever." April rolls her eyes, and maybe, Nina thinks, they're of a mind on this. "Nina, all you gotta do is tell us where she is."

She tilts her head to the side as she considers April. "You can't read my mind. Do they know that?"

"You were expecting some big, scary Nova guy, huh?" April walks around behind her, trailing a hand across Nina's shoulders. "Don't worry," she leans on the back of the chair to speak in Nina's ear, "They know what I can do."

*

April Skouris, picked up by NTAC agents ostensibly following up on reports of her misusing a newly-developed ability. They've seen powers like this before, April is harmless, as far as they know, and they have bigger problems - people showing up with new powers daily, in equal proportion to the number of people showing up dead. But this is Diana Skouris's sister, and if there's one thing Nina has learned, it's that the 4400 is a family affair. It's possible April could become a target, if she isn't already connected with one of any number of factions springing up in the wake of the promicin shots.

So they bring her in, hold her for a few hours, scare her a little. Nina conducts the interview herself.

"I haven't done anything wrong," April insists, leaning forward over the table. "Those guys are just pissed off because their memories came back - I told them that could happen, I'm still learning how to use my gift. I didn't do anything they didn't ask me to do."

"Pay you to do, you mean?" Nina raises an eyebrow.

"It's not illegal to sell your powers. I checked. So you can't keep me here." Arms crossed, April is full of confidence as she sits back in her chair and says, "I want to see my sister."

The look on April's face when she hears why her sister won't be showing up to save the day is one of feigned indifference. It only solidifies Nina's belief that they will need to keep an eye on this woman.

"Oh, you know, she was trying to contact me a while ago. I was kind of avoiding her. Anyway..." she trails off. Nina lets the silence draw itself out until April continues, "So... you guys must miss her around here."

"Do you miss your sister, April? She didn't even tell you she was leaving the country."

"Oh I... wish her all the best, you know? She deserves it."

"She stole your boyfriend, didn't she?"

The direct approach gets her a pair of rolled eyes and a sarcastic response.

"And what, sibling rivalry has driven me to a life of crime? Is that why I'm here?"

"We both know why you're here, April."

April, arm wrapped around herself and a thumbnail between her teeth, lifts her eyes to Nina's and seems to agree.

The interview is over and she's at the door when April's hand touches her back. "You miss her too, don't you. I don't blame you, she's always been the special one."

She turns halfway. "Agent Skouris was one of my best agents. I was sorry to see her go."

"You know where they are, Nina?"

They're in Europe, April already knows this.

Responding to the momentary confusion on her face, April says, "You're right, we can talk about that later."

The hand on her back moves to her shoulder, turning her fully so her back is to the door. There's a hand at her waist now, too, a thumb brushing her neck, and her own breath coming faster as April draws near.

"What do you think you're..." she trails off with April's face hovering before her own. A kiss, lips brushing hers and then fitting closer, mouth open and lingering. She tastes April's mouth and she knows exactly what's happening, hands on the sides of April's face, pulling her closer, finding as much of April's mouth as she can with her tongue.

Then she has her on the table, shifting, restless beneath her as she pulls at April's clothing. She wants to taste all of her, her earlobe, the spider web in the curve of her neck, her pale sternum, ribs showing through her skin, the ivy tattoo twined about her right breast.

April's body is a work of art, warm and alive under her mouth, and April is impatient, tugging Nina's blouse from her pants and finding the zipper at her hip, drawing it down. Her fingers are sliding inside Nina's underwear, sliding inside her body. Nina braces herself over April, mouths meeting again in an urgent press of lips that goes on and on until -

She comes out of the memory flushed and breathing hard, aroused, her fingernails digging into the armrests and the aftershock of a powerful orgasm echoing in her mind.

It's so vivid. It isn't real.

"Was it good for you, too?" Impish and grinning, sitting legs tucked up in the chair facing hers, April, she thinks, has gone insane.

"That's not what happened." Nina schools her voice as best she can, grasping at what she knows as opposed to what she remembers. "I didn't even conduct that interview."

April Skouris wasn't worth her time, then. She has a vague recollection of skimming over the transcript. The memory of her back against the door, bodies moulding together, hands moving under her clothes is far less elusive.

"Feels real, though, right? It still feels real."

She rises and crosses the space between them. Standing over Nina, she runs a finger along her jaw.

Nina pulls her head away. She might have leaned into the touch otherwise. This is rape, she tells herself. This is rape, but she remembers wanting it, wanting April like she's never wanted anyone. She remembers the taste of her skin, and violation and desire and April twist together in her mind till they are barely distinguishable, one from another.

"The thing is, I can do so much worse." April says it with a shrug, and a weak smile, almost like an apology.

*

"This hurts you, doesn't it," she chokes out minutes, hours later - she can't tell how long it's been.

She can't close her eyes, doesn't want to so much as blink. None of it is real, her sense of reason hasn't deserted her but she remembers -

She's shaking, and it hurts to talk, but talking helps, keeps her grounded, here in the present.

"You see what I see, you hear -" her voice breaks, stays broken. She lifts her head and stares at April till her eyes hurt.

"It's like a scary movie, you know it's not real, you can hit pause, turn on the lights." April smiles, but her lips are tight. She's lying. There's some small solace in that. "I always loved being scared. You know, the fastest rollercoasters, the stupidest risks -"

She's barely listening to April as she talks. Someone's screaming in her mind. She can't get away from it. Bile rises again in her throat, she wrenches her shoulder as she lurches to one side, vomiting on the floor. It's just stomach acid and mucus this time. Her nose and throat burn, her eyes streaming.

A hand moves on her back, rubbing in soothing circles. "You're okay. It's almost over, I promise."

"Fuck you," she spits back, hoarse and trembling, but the anger helps, gives her something to focus on. She twists her head around, dislodging April's fingers as they stroke the hair back behind her ears. "You're pathetic, April. This is the best you can do? This is your great purpose, your so-called gift? Screw around with my mind all you want. You've got a lot to learn about interrogation."

April sighs and moves back into her line of sight. "Good thing this isn't an interrogation, then, huh."

She blinks, swallows painfully. "What do you mean?"

"All the blood and death - it sucks, and I'm sorry," April says earnestly. "But I need your defences down, your mind open, and this is the easiest way. You're ready now." She crouches down, hands resting lightly on Nina's knees. "I told you it was almost over."

"What are you -" She stops, words cut off by a sinking realisation. She shouldn't have underestimated this woman.

"I made you see horrible things," April says. "Now, it's time to forget."

*

There are people around her when she wakes up. Someone helps her sit, someone helps her drink from a glass of water. Familiar voices murmur helpful, comforting things, telling her she'll be okay, to take her time.

"April," she says.

"I'm right here." April sits next to her on the bed, smiles. "How do you feel?"

"Sore." She frowns, puts a hand to her head. "Confused." She feels as if she's been under sedation. She tries to take in her surroundings, looking past the small crowd of faces. Where the hell is she?

"They had you for days," someone else, a man with a beard, rests a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not surprised things are a little fuzzy."

"Do you remember, Nina?" April says. "You were caught, and interrogated. We got you out."

She rubs her wrists, they're red and chaffed. She remembers. "God. It was -" It was awful. She closes her eyes, but that makes it worse, the images stark and painfully near. She opens them, focuses on April, who squeezes her hand.

"You were so brave. They never got it out of you, why you were there."

Why she was - "Maia."

It's difficult to sort through the mess of information, her mind a blur, but she remembers - NTAC, Diana Skouris, her daughter, both of them in hiding, how important it is to locate them.

"I know where they are."

The look on April's face when she tells them is worth everything.

*

"I feel strange," she says later, when the others have gone. April is still with her.

"It's the promicin, it's starting to take effect."

"The promicin? It could kill me." Alarmed, she struggles to sit up, away from the pillows stacked behind her back.

"It's what you wanted, remember? You want to be one of us."

"Wait," she shakes her head. "No, this doesn't make sense." How can this be right?

It's not. Everything is wrong here. She grabs April's arm, holding on to what she knows.

She'll be dead, or she'll be different. One way or the other.

She can feel it starting. Something is about to happen.

"You're so brave, Nina," April whispers, holding her hand tight.


End file.
